This invention relates to soft frozen non-dairy desserts. More particularly, this invention relates to soft frozen naturally and artificially fruit flavored water ices having small crystal size, smooth consistency and uniformity of texture.
Soft frozen desserts ranging from dairy products such as ice milk, custard, ice cream and yogurt to non-dairy water ice items such as slushes, shave ices and Sno-Kones (TM) are becoming more readily available through fast food and convenience outlets. Dairy frozen desserts are of more limited availability due to the fact that dairy containing products are more strictly regulated than their non-dairy counterparts. However, frozen water ice desserts have not attained the same popularity as frozen dairy desserts and are not generally as palatable in that they tend to have relatively large ice crystal sizes and not be as smooth to the taste. Moreover, when marketed in soft form such as slushes, Sno-Kones (TM), or shave ices, the flavoring often separates from the ice crystals and drains to the bottom of the serving container leaving an upper portion consisting mainly of ice crystals and the bottom portion consisting of melted ice and flavoring syrup.